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Monday, May 9, 2011

"Gordon, there in Vidalia just called, Granny and said he wouldn't be coming here this weekend for family dinner cause the water is a worry." My son Fred told me about his brother this morning there, and well I got some advice for folks right now, and it's all about the water and paying attention.

You see my mama told me bout that 1927 flood, cause some of her family they were hurt real bad. All along the Mississippi the waters they rose up, and people they got scared. And the President Coolidge he done nothing to help, and then the feller Hoover he didn't either. But I think Obama will, cause he is family and cares about us folks.

But you never know when those politicians get their nose in the air and act all high and mighty.

So here's this Granny's advice. This is serious business, and I got no time to be foolin' with you. You folks pay attention and don't think you can ride things out just because you think you can. If government folks tell you to leave, well you do it. And get all prepared right now, cause no one knows for sure how bad those waters are going to get when the government says there is going to be a lot of flooding from Memphis, Tennessee to the poke salad patches of Louisiana. The problem is folks sometimes don't trust each other, and here's a time we have to do that--and put our trust in the man upstairs as well, cause a change is gonna come, I'm afraid; and I want all you folks to be safe.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

"They got him, didn't they, Granny?" "Yes, they did, dear, "I said. "He was the bad guy and deserved to get killed, don't you think?" she asked then, and I stopped for a moment, in this difficult world, how does anyone explain how life carried in a woman's belly, given by God, can become someone who caused evil and was killed to prevent that evil from happening again.

"You are crying. Why, Granny?" I looked at our Susie, wondering what my Mama might say, but knowing her trust is in me, and I said, "It isn't as easy as you see on television, especially for people who believe in life and a God, or even those who believe life is special for everyone given a gift. But some people misuse the gift, and that's what happens; and their life is then taken away. Sometimes it just happens, and we should all mourn when anyone's life isn't good and when someone don't use their talents for good rather than bad deeds and evil that hurts."

"He was a bad man, that bin Laden fellow. Do you think he always was bad?"

"Well I told his mama when she visited us here, and your other Granny was sitting over there in that chair, that the boy had some ideas that one day everyone would know him, since he made so much racket around here, we had to send the family back to the Middle East. His banging those tin pans outside started waking the ducks, and no one was able to sleep. So we thought if that boy didn't change, well someday things might not turn out so good."

"I watched those buildings catch right on fire ten years ago, and then I saw pictures of that boy all growed up, with that beard and all, but those child eyes were gone; and the meanness took over. And I was so sad for his mom, cause we birth our babies and expect they will all grow up fine. His mama, God bless her, is weeping right now there in heaven, as every mother weeps for a child, for a life gone wrong, and the killing that sometimes must happen so evil won't be there again."

"I understand," said Susie, but I don't know if she does, because us grown ups we don't always know everything either, why some men grow evil and others do not, and why things just happen that way."

But the man upstairs got it all figured out, and Susie needs me to explain it; but for me I just have to remember right now that it's all just enough.